It is well known that chimes or warnings are generated in association with certain activities performed by vehicles. For example, sound generators are known to be utilized to alert bystanders when a vehicle is in reverse gear. Similarly, the opening and/or closing of a rear liftgate is often accompanied by a warning from a sound generator or through the vehicle's interior speakers.
While adding a sound generator for the reverse gear or litigate warnings is known, the addition of the device carries additional component and manufacturing costs, including additional wiring, packaging and interfacing. While the utilization of the interior speakers generally avoids these shortcomings associated with adding components to the vehicle, the interior speakers approach is not without its own drawbacks. When the warnings are loud enough to alert bystanders outside of the vehicle of the movement of the liftgate, for instance, the warnings can overwhelm passengers in second and third rows of vehicles.
In addition, there is an inherent delay in generating the warnings. While such delays are traditionally less than three seconds and of minimal consequence when opening/closing the liftgate, other situations may demand a real time warning with a very minimal, if any, delay. This can occur, for example, when a seat dump switch is initiated and an electric motor positioned in a seat, for example, within a passenger compartment quickly drives the seat back forward. The alert in this instance needs to be immediate or the action of the motor and the seat may be partially or fully completed before the warning initiates.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and related circuits for generating chimes or warnings utilizing existing hardware and without significant initiation delays and other of the aforementioned drawbacks.